The "Beating" Heart of The Undead

      

         When one thinks of zombie movies, the first thing that comes to mind is a slow moving brain eating monster who can only communicate by moaning & groaning. People believe zombies have the mindset of food (human brains) and can only be killed by bashing or shooting them in the head.  Along with the moaning zombies, people begin to fear the end of humanity because there is no “Zombie cure”. What if there was a cure?  What if it was possible to bring the half dead, the living dead, back to the mortal world? What if zombies had internal feelings, beyond an extreme hunger for brains and we didn’t have to be afraid of them? In one situation, zombies might have the same feelings as human beings. We might not necessarily need to hide from them or be afraid - all they want is to love and be loved.

        In “Warm Bodies”, a movie directed by Jonathan Levine, “R” is a brain eating monster (aka Zombie) who lives outside the city walls in a “Zombie Zone”.  R is somewhat different in that he can talk a little bit.  Within the city walls there is a group of humans trying to stay alive and safe.  Julie, the main human character, and her friends leave the walled city and enter the Zombie Zone to search for medicine to take back to the walled city. As Julie and her friends find medicine, they are cornered and attacked by zombies.  For zombies to kill humans, they eat their brains. And when zombies eat a human’s brain it gains access to all of that human’s memories.  During the zombie attack “R” actually kills and begins to eat brain of Julie’s boyfriend - Perry.  Perry and Julie had been in love for the last few years.  Interestingly, each time R eats a bit more of Perry’s brain he experiences not only Perry’s memories  but increases his ability to have emotions and sets into motion a series of events that could transform the entire world.

        The question: do we have to truly be afraid of zombies? Each time R ate Perry’s brain he became more human like. R began having emotions and feelings making him “less dead.” As R began showing any type of feeling the other zombies began to regain their emotions and remember how it felt to be in love again. Slowly each zombie was affected by this and began to become more human-like. One thing that made them zombies was the lack of a heartbeat.  Being in love and doing things you enjoy made their heart begin to beat again - making you want to live.

        So do you think that is it ethical to allow one person to die to save the rest of the world? In my perspective the answer is a resounding yes.  If this zombie “R” only has to kill one human to save mankind while being able to make all zombies human again it is the right thing to do.

        In conclusion, the main question here is should we even be afraid of zombies? Obviously we know why zombies aren’t human, (no heartbeat, feelings, or emotions) and now we know the cure to save them.  Saving zombies is a chain reaction. R gains back knowledge of how to become human and he rubs off on all the other zombies. Zombies want to be human again and live their life.




                                                           References

Blackburn, Simon. Being Good, A Short Introduction to Ethics. Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.

 

Levine, Jonathan. Warm Bodies. Summit Entertainment, Feburary 2013